Review: Accustomed to the Dark

Joshua Craft and Rita Mondragon run a small detective agency in Santa Fe. The book begins with a well-earned, idyllic morning was destroyed by a shot that leaves Rita clinging to life. Joshua cannot bear to sit in the hospital waiting helplessly for Rita to either die or recover. He overcomes a natural impulse to blame the justice system for the attack, and begins his own investigation partly to distract himself from his fear for Rita.

Joshua realizes almost instantly who carried out the shooting. In retrospect, the idea of the killer from the past seems rather improbable, but it is presented so convincingly that this did not occur to me until after I finished the book. The events leading up to this attack are told in a series of flashbacks that fit into the story of the current investigation and Joshua's travels following the criminal's trail across the southwest US and then on to Florida. The story is gripping. The flashbacks and Joshua's internal dialogues with an imaginary version of Rita are smoothly integrated into the novel. Joshua is very convincing as the clever investigator, always able to come up with an original angle and to persuade various neighbours of the people he is hunting to chat. He also had some rather extraordinary luck during the climactic scene, but that is a minor caveat. Joshua's personality is well-developed through his internal dialogues which show him as an essentially solitary person who nevertheless has a very deep and strong tie to Rita.

The secondary characters, such as the criminals, are not so well- developed. Rita herself is rather two-dimensional, a rather typical startlingly beautiful girlfriend, but of course she does not have much time to become a developed character since she is shot in the opening pages. However, these are relatively minor points considering the rest of the novel and overall, "Accustomed to the Dark' is an excellent read.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM

Book Review: Accustomed to the Dark